Why it’s not all about doing it like a ‘Pro’…

All of this glorious weather puts me in mind of a day I spent recently racing JCBs and suchlike at ‘Diggerland’, which, regardless of how you dress it up, is just an excuse for a grown man to muck about like a 10 year old in a full size Tonka toy.

I was accompanied for this little adventure by my good friend Ali Campbell and of course, our wives, who attended partly as spectators but mostly to ensure we actually came home.

Of course I didn’t win, but enjoyed myself immensely and lifted loads, manoeuvred around this and that and even dug a few holes expertly enough to end up, both literally and figuratively, around halfway down the field… then sat back to enjoy ‘the final’ which is where my tale really begins…

Now, the first contestant for the final – we’ll him ‘Dave’ – (names have been changed to protect the innocent) who, his wife informed us enthusiastically and a great volume, had spent 15 years as a digger driver, and was here as a ‘treat’ because he missed it so much now he had started driving lorries.

The other chap seemed to be very much the underdog, because despite reaching the final, he did look like he’d be much, much more at home in an Audi or a BMW rather than anything with a bucket on the front…

You would have thought that anybody with half a brain would have had their money on the ex-pro digger driver being streets ahead on this, completing the course and be sat eating his way through one of the particularly ‘interesting’ looking ‘truck stop’ breakfasts before the other guy had completed the first task.

Well, that’s where you, I and everybody else would have been wrong. As our ‘pro’ had lifted the first item and was now executing a very precise turn to go back and complete the rest of the course, his competitor picked up his item and just slammed his vehicle into reverse, negating the need for making a turn, and in doing so, building up a unassailable lead.

On crossing the finishing line a sorry second, our pro was not happy at the new chap’s unconventional technique, and was even more unhappy when it was explained that nowhere did it say they had to make the turn, and he just assumed they had to because that’s what he had always done, so despite all his protests was left crying into his breakfast…

Clearly there’s a couple of messages here – firstly that assuming you’re doing something properly because it’s same way you’ve always done it, though something I know we’re all guilty of some times, is not really the way to be doing things…

Secondly that it doesn’t matter how long we’ve been doing something or how much experience we may have, a fresh pair of eyes coupled with clever and innovative action, can beat it all. In our business it’s not always about having the biggest list or best websites (though that does help) – if that were the case then nobody new would be making any money online – and yet we see them popping up all the time.

So, if you’re still not happy with what you’re getting from what you’re doing – it might be worth trying something you’ve never tried before … or maybe have another try at something you think you know, but presented with a new and innovative twist (and on that subject, keep an eye on your inbox over the next week or so)…